Carmel, a squad that didn’t even envision making the state finals when the season began, capped an historic season by knocking off Washington, the 2013 state champion, 4-2 at Hoffman Estates High School.

It is the highest finish in school history for the Corsairs (19-8-1), who broke open a scoreless game by scoring all four of their goals in a 14-minute span late in the first half.

“Third place means this is the bar that is set for all future years,” Carmel coach Ray Krawzak said. “Now we get to see if we can do third place or better. Let’s see if we can climb higher on the ladder in the future.”

They climbed higher than they ever had, making their state semifinal debut Friday.

That didn’t go so well as the Corsairs lost 3-1 to eventual state champion Waterloo. The loss put the team in a sad mood, but it was gone by the time Saturday morning dawned sunny and cold.

“I think today was a different level of play,” Carmel senior midfielder Braco Lasso said. “Obviously we didn’t get the outcome we wanted yesterday but we had nothing to lose today, so we just put everything on the line. Third place is not too bad.”

Neither was the performance of Carmel’s offense, which demoralized the Patriots (12-8-3) with a surprisingly big outburst after the first 25 minutes lacked scoring chances or a clearly dominant team.

Senior Ryan McKernan got the party started when he bagged his ninth goal of the season off an assist from Reed Wilson with 15:22 to go in the opening half.

That triggered a spree that saw the Corsairs score four goals in a span of seven shots. Lasso buried a cross from sophomore Rob Rao at the 11:12 mark and junior Michael Alemu made it 3-0 by converting a rebound with 9:35 left.

Leading scorer Austin Ehren got his 28th goal on a breakaway with 1:07 remaining in a half that suddenly couldn’t end soon enough for the Patriots.

“I think this team had a weaker defense than the team we were playing yesterday,” Krawzak said. “When we were paired up with Waterloo yesterday, I think they won a lot of the one-on-one battles. I think today we won the majority of the matchups.”

The Corsairs won all of them during their late deluge, but it might have been a different story had the Patriots dented the scoreboard first.

“We actually as a team were speaking about it once we got off the field (at halftime), that if we would have scored the first goal in the first half, it would have kept us going,” Washington junior Raul Garcia said. “It (would provide) more energy to keep playing harder throughout the second half.”

The second half was dramatically different, with the Patriots not allowing any shots and dominating the action. But it was too late.

“There was a plan and it kind of worked out second half,” Washington coach Alvaro Perez said. “First half we checked out prematurely, I believe.

“Trying to explain what happened today, we expected to win this game coming in. We came in with the expectation that it was going to be our game.

“Our no. 2 defender was missing today due to a family medical situation. We had to move (Garcia) back on defense, which changed our game plan.”

With Garcia playing in the back in place of sophomore Leonardo Carrillo, Perez inserted senior Braulio Herrera into the lineup at forward.

“He had a couple chances and had those two shots gone in, it would have been quite different, I believe,” Perez said. “He gave us two solid opportunities at goal but couldn’t finish them.”

Ironically, it was Garcia who finished a pair of chances in the second half, scoring with 27:28 remaining and again with 4:16 to go on a header which redirected Carlos Martinez’s cross to make things interesting.

The Patriots continued to attack but had only one further scoring chance, that coming with 2:40 to go when Garcia headed a corner kick over the crossbar.

“Once we had our first goal, it brought up everybody, to let them know that it was possible for us to come back,” Garcia said. “After the first goal everybody started playing like a family, like we’ve been playing throughout this whole season. That’s how we came along.”

Despite the loss, Washington made history by becoming the first Chicago Public League school to win two state trophies. The Patriots were the third such team to win a state title when they captured the Class 2A title in 2013, two years after Mather won the crown.

“It is another trophy for the program and the city of Chicago Public League, and I think we ought to be proud of that,” Perez said. “It didn’t take 30-some years like it did in the past for somebody to come back and win.

“We’re privileged to be the CPS school that represents our entire district as big as the city is. We’re not the only ones in the city that play good solid soccer. It’s just we’ve been privileged and fortunate to be the ones (to get here). We’re in good position to represent the good soccer that is played in the City of Chicago through the years.”

Perez is the only coach Washington has ever known, having started the program from scratch in 1995. In 21 seasons, he has guided the Patriots to a 221-99-21 record.

“At the end of the day, it’s not so much about winning championships but putting these young men in college. When I first started the program back in 1995, it was just a bunch of young men who played street-type soccer, where it’s just chasing the soccer ball without a goal in mind.

“So we changed the culture, definitely, and we’re changing the culture throughout the city. Playing soccer is one thing; using soccer as a tool to go to college is quite something else. Hopefully some of our seniors will get opportunities to take it to the next level.”

Now that Carmel has taken its program to the next level, their younger players like Ehren hope to keep it going and give the trophy some company.

“(Winning the third place trophy) does a lot,” Ehren said. “It makes all the younger players want to do the same thing next year. It makes us want to do even better next year, actually.”

For the six seniors on the roster, including Lasso, McKernan and fellow starter Scott Cloe, they leave knowing they led the team to a place they never dreamed they could reach.

“Not really,” Lasso said when asked if the Corsairs had envisioned this when the season began. “But we just kept fighting game by game and we’re here now, and it was great. We had a good season so I’m happy.”